DOHA, Qatar -- Dave Villwock drove the U-16 Ellstrom Elam Plus around the 2-mile course at Doha Bay at an average speed of 146.427 mph Thursday to claim the top qualifying position for the 2009 Oryx Cup UIM World Championship, the final stop on the newly renamed H1 Unlimited series.

NEW YORK -- Wally Backman wants another chance to manage in the majors.

BENTON CITY -- A covered shooting range for use in hunter education and safety training classes will be built at the Rattlesnake Mountain Shooting Facility near Benton City, thanks in part to a grant awarded this week to the Tri-Cities Shooting Association.

NACHES -- On the slopes overlooking the Nile Valley from the north side of Highway 410, seeing wildlife is no big deal.

It's November, deep into football season and just before the holidays.

DENVER -- Hawaii running back Leon Wright-Jackson, Fresno State safety Lorne Bell and Fresno State placekicker Kevin Goessling were named the Western Athletic Conference offensive, defensive and special teams players of the week, respectively.

MONCTON, New Brunswick -- Kennewick's Billy Harris was inducted into the New Brunswick Baseball Hall of Fame at a ceremony Oct. 24 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Moncton.

KENNEWICK -- Jake Cook may be the top junior bass fisherman in the country, but his future professional plans include catching crooks as well as fish.

Lower Columbia River sturgeon numbers are on the decline, with potentially 40 percent cuts in sport and commercial fishing looming for 2010 and beyond.

KENNEWICK -- The Inter-Mountain Alpine Club plans a free lecture and slideshow about Yellowstone National Park in winter from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Nov. 17 in the Mid-Columbia Library, 1620 S. Union St., Kennewick.

A big ego is a poacher's Achilles' heel.

LEESBURG, Fla. -- Kiana Clark of Richland earned $2,000 for finishing third at the Bassmaster CastingKids national championships last weekend in Leesburg, Fla. Jared Raymer of Brandenburg, Ky., won the 10-14 division.

INDIAN WELLS, Calif.-- The Columbia Basin Racquet Club 3.5 Senior Women's team swept Brownsville, Texas, 3-0 on Oct. 25 to finish 3-0 in championship play and earn the first United States Tennis Association title for a Pacific Northwest 3.5 women's senior team.

The catch of Northern pikeminnow was down this year even though the season was extended by two weeks, according to the Bonneville Power Administration, which oversees the bounty program for the voracious salmon predators.

RICHLAND -- Fishing guide Mark Shear will talk about bank and boat fishing for steelhead at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the November meeting of the Richland Rod and Gun Club.

TAVARES, Fla. -- Pasco's Don Hogue finished second Friday at the BASS Federation 2009 Championship in Tavares, Fla.

EUGENE -- Here in the Beaver State, Castor canadensis is both loathed and loved, even apart from his role as a university mascot.

The coho run on the Columbia River continues to produce some good numbers.

Pheasant hunters in Eastern and Southeastern Washington may finally have a reason, and perhaps a season, to rejoice.

RICHLAND -- Registration for the 29th annual Tri-Cities Marathon is open today and the morning of race day before Sunday's 8 a.m. start at the Shilo Inn in Richland.

SEATTLE -- The Seattle Mariners' experiment of having the first Japanese catcher in the major leagues has ended two years early.

SEATTLE -- Third-base coach Bruce Hines is the only Seattle Mariners coach not returning in 2010.

KANSAS CITY -- Seattle Sounders FC became only the second expansion team to make the MLS playoffs in its first year, clinching a postseason berth with a 3-2 victory over the Kansas City Wizards on Saturday night.

MOSES LAKE -- A Moses Lake boy won and a Tri-Cities youth placed second in the 11-14 age group at the Washington State Junior Bassmasters 2009 championships last weekend at Moses Lake.

Nearly a quarter of a million steelhead have crossed Lower Granite Dam this year, making it one of the biggest runs on record.

MOXEE -- The hulking contraption looks as if it were conceived by Rube Goldberg, whose unwieldy machines seemed designed to finagle through a thousand seemingly unrelated actions what might easily have been achieved in one.

Waterfowl hunters can take home an extra pintail and again shoot canvasbacks this season, but the overall number of ducks and geese in Eastern Washington is expected to be on par with previous seasons.

OLYMPIA -- The fall chinook fishing season will close on the Columbia River from the blue bridge in Pasco to Priest Rapids Dam at midnight today because of a higher than expected harvest, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

KENNEWICK -- Brian Schur of Kennewick (32:28.6) was the top male and Jennifer Comfort of Pasco (44:54.8) the top female in the 10K portion of the ninth annual Fall Frolic Foot Race at Columbia Park.

RICHLAND -- A draft management and conservation plan released this week for gray wolves in Washington lays the blueprint for how the predators could eventually be delisted from state endangered species protection.

Columbia National Wildlife Refuge will have a "Big Sit" birding event at the Royal Lake Overlook from 8 a.m. to noon Sunday to launch National Wildlife Refuge Week.

SKAMOKAWA -- Larry Holland and two helpers dug their feet into the sand and pulled with all their might on a fishing seine net that looped into the Columbia River.

HERMISTON -- Mid-Columbia auto racing fans can get in one last race to watch this year when the Northwest Sprint Car Invitational will be held today at Columbia Motor Speedway in Hermiston.

Hunters have a responsibility to positively identify their target before they pull the trigger.

RICHLAND -- The Richland Rod & Gun Club will have its October meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the city of Richland maintenance facility, exit 3 from Interstate 182 to Queensgate Drive, across from Wal-Mart.

The biggest hatchery-raised steelhead return in years and the annual fall chinook run are proving a big lure for anglers on the Columbia River.

YAKIMA -- Snowmobilers are reaching into their own wallets and bank accounts to help a state agency make up for a budget shortfall -- not because they want to, but because the alternative would effectively shut down snowmobiling in the Ahtanum and a handful of other popular trail areas.

With bull elk in the rut full throttle, any respectable bowhunter who can fib his way out of work or break out of jail is trying to bugle one into arrow range.

The Los Angeles Lakers signed free agent guard Thomas Kelati on Wednesday.

PASCO -- Night of Champions was an unabashed hit.

A successful Montana fly-fishing shop owner is proving that building environmental stewardship for fish and rivers into his business model is more than just the right thing to do.

PULLMAN -- Will the last person to leave please turn out the lights? Young old-timers will recognize that request as characterizing the abysmal economic situation in the Land of Boeing in the late 1960s.

OLYMPIA -- Young hunters in Washington will get a jump on adults this weekend with the annual two-day, youth-only season for waterfowl, pheasant, quail and partridge.

OLYMPIA -- Washington fisheries officials are about to deliver a bombshell on Columbia River anglers, proposing single barbless hooks be required for salmon and steelhead angling as far upstream as McNary Dam.

A bountiful summer steelhead run prompted the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to open the season early for hatchery-raised steelhead through the Hanford Reach, and allow anglers to keep up to three fish daily.

A Kennewick couple may not have season tickets to Seattle Seahawks, but they hope to be the football team's ultimate fans.

PASCO -- The Tri-Cities' first mixed martial arts event, called the Night of Champions, will be held Saturday night at TRAC in Pasco.

WEST WENDOVER, Nev. -- West Richland's Paul Dorsh qualified for the 130 MPH Club at the Bonneville Salt Flats on Friday with two runs of 135 and 136 mph.

PORTLAND -- The NCAA men's basketball tournament will return to Oregon in 2012.

KENNEWICK -- Pasco's Ryan Harris, 13, rolled a perfect 300 game Sunday at the first Mid-Columbia Junior Bowlers Tournament at Spare Time Lanes.